Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1887-06-10

the eye can reach, are covered with blllow-
ing mantle of prosperity. (applause.)
Where once, out-posts and pickets were sci
to guard my command against brave and
persistent enemy, I now stand alone vel
coined guest. (applause). I thank God and
you for the changed conditions. I have expe-
rienced every vicissitude of war, including
being killed-for I have been half killed
twice-Qa ughter), but of all the triumphs
have ever enjoyed this victory of peace ts-day
is the grandest and most satisfactory. Gap
plause.)
Among the
CAUSES OF THIS NOTABLE EVENT
recognize, first a growing custom which will
satisfy the universal longing of all men to es-
cape oblivion when their turn shall come to
stand the test of remembrance. Secondly, l
recognize in my own welcome the highest COM
pliment that you could pay to my command
by remembering that when it was here in
your country fighting for restoration of the
Union and the preservation of our nationality,
it did not attack the defenceless-that it
fought your soldiers with courage and energy,
but held your homes as far as possible sacred
from the touch of war. (applause.)
Since your invitation to me was announced
have received letters from many of my Off
GERS and men in different parts of the country,
expressing their qualification at your action.
Your surviving soldiers remember
MY COMMAND;
they remember how, when new and untried
it fought your army of West Virginia in
Augusta, '63, at Rocky Gap, near White Sui
phur Springs, without discredit, for twenty
four hours; how it again attacked and routed
that army at Droop Mountain in November
of that year, and you cannot forget how q
portion of my command, $500 mounted men,
penetrated your lines beyond $50 miles, and
destroyed the valuable supplies of Longstreet
and the railroad at Salem, and that same
$500, after doing their work of destruction,
turned their faces northward and faced the
wintry tempests Of December 'e3, and
marched, climbed, slid and swum" through
and around $4,000 of your best and bravest,
and escaped capture; how, early in '64, $3.50
of them led their horses in single file over
the mountains of West Virginia and descended
upon the Tennessee railroad near Wythville,
holding in bloody embrace the 5000 of Gen.
John Morgan for four hours, thus preventing
his junction with the forces of Gen. Jenkins
atDublin, and ensuring the defeat of the latter
at Cloyd Mountain; you all remember our part
in the Lynchburg expedition, and the division
of Ramseur in Early's army, and especially
the Stonewall brigade commanded by the gal
liant General Lilley, (applause) will remember
the loss of their battery and two or three hun
dred men at Carter's farm near Winchester,
in July, '64, and the division of McCausland
cannot forget Moorfeld when it was surprised
at dawn of day on August Sth, '64, and lost
its battery, colors, and large number of its
men and horses; and my great and good friend,
your gallant soldier Governor will carry
through life an attestation of our attack on
your left at Winchester, on the 18th of Sep
TENDER, "a, whereby the brilliant prospects
which awaited the heroic efforts of Earlys
army were turned into hopeless defeat And
finally the wonderfully active army of Early
and the gallant Lomax, who commanded its
left, at Fishers Hill, will recollect the assault
brought sudden victory to our arms.
All these remembrances are still glowing
and glorious, but above them all shines the
everlasting golden challenge to the men and
women of Virginia to recall an instance where
the sanctity of home was invaded by any Of
feer or man of my division, without swift and
condign punishment overtaking the offender.
&c q
officers and men this recognition of their dis
cipline and high sense of duty which you ex-
tend to their commander to-day. My men
proud of their character as soldiers tasted in
those terrible days the first fruits of duty done,
when my division formed part of larger
force and they saw women come to their gates
with white faces and dishevelled hair, and
heard them inquiring of the passing column
for Averell's men to protect them. (great ap-
plause.)
Among those who greet me here to-day I
observe the beaming faces of generation
who must have been too young to realize the
tremendous struggle of life and death to which
this occasion mainly relates, and whose notions
about its cause and conduct must besdim and
perhaps they sometimes wonder what it was
all about. But they need not regret their lack
of understanding, for very few of our leading
men in government, literature, legislation OF
politics, at that time, or even this day, have
reached down to the broad and truthful pre-
misses which should underlie any philosophic-
al and
CANDID CONSIDERATION OF THE ORIGIN AND
RESULTS OF THE WAR
Not remembering that that organized aggregate
of humanity called society the parent of gov
eminent, derives its character from the
character of the labor that supports it
that the people of the North and South
were sustained by entirely different
forms of labor-that the different social con
ditions which resulted, were originally united
by the ties of helplessness and mutual Deepen
dence in resisting the oppressive exactions of
the mother country and achieved the indie.
pendence of the Republic, and afterwards
tried to perfect and perpetuate the Union of
states by adopting the Constitution-that great
men of both social conditions strove earne stlv
and long to maintain the Union in spite of
4he natural and irresistible diYersties which
sprang from social, political and commercial
antagonisms between these different social
conditions, the accommodating aggravations Of
which no government devised by man could
repress, until it fell to the lot of the eighth
generation of Americans, no longer able to
control or harmonic them, to resort to the
arbitrament of arms. Then followed a
heroic period which gave birth to great names
glorious achievements and heroic deeds. One
of these antagonistic social forms had to he
crushed. The strength of anything is meas
ured by the force required to break it. The